Queensland coach Ewen McKenzie says the Reds are cautious of meeting a Bulls outfit on the rebound from their embarrassing loss to the Crusaders.

The Bulls were humbled 27-0 in Timaru last Saturday night, their defence leaking three tries and poor discipline allowing the Crusaders' stand-in fly half Matt Berquist to slot four penalty goals.

Had Berquist landed more than four of his combined nine conversion and penalty goal attempts the winning margin would have been much greater for the Crusaders, who share top spot on the overall standings with the Reds.

The defeat has left the Bulls with a 4-3 record through seven matches and they slipped to eight place overall, while holding down third position in the South African conference.

'Bounce back factor' has been a popular catchphrase in the NRL in recent seasons and McKenzie is mindful the Bulls will not be lacking motivation, as they attempt to re-boot the defence of their Super Rugby championship at Lang Park on Saturday night.

"We can't take too much out of their last result, they didn't have a happy day against the Crusaders and they'll be quite determined," McKenzie said.

"They're coming in off a loss and I'm pretty sure they understand that this is a big game for them. They want to get their title chances back on track, so it's two teams pretty desperate."

The desperation McKenzie speaks of has much to do with the fact the Reds are on the verge of setting a new franchise record for most consecutive wins during the professional era.

Their 19-6 triumph over the previously undefeated Stormers in Cape Town last Sunday morning (AEST) was their fifth victory in a row and a sixth against the Bulls will set a new benchmark.

McKenzie says simply winning matches is the priority rather than posting a new record, but he acknowledges the achievement would signpost how far the Reds have come since he took over as coach following the 2009 season.

"We like to sort of adjust history and those little targets are things that we take note of," he said.

"It's not the main act for the weekend, the main act is to get the win, but to be able to subtly prove to the group that we are making progress and I guess relative to previous Reds teams, we are making significant progress and that's a good thing.

"Those little moments of history have been good and we've been able to regularly tick them off over the last 16 months. it would be nice to set a record along the way."

Solid defence

The Reds now have a 6-1 return from their seven appearances in 2011, having turned around their fortunes following a mixed start to the season.

An unconvincing 21-20 win over Western Force in their season opener at Lang Park was followed by a 30-6 thumping at the hands of arch rival New South Wales in Sydney, a lacklustre display that saw them concede four tries.

They let through as many five-pointers in their 31-25 triumph away to the Brumbies in round three, but their defence has stiffened considerably since.

Their line has been crossed only three times in their past four matches and in that stretch they have produced two defensive clean sheets, which includes the win over the Stormers.

McKenzie cites an emphasis on 'offensive' defence as being a key factor behind the Reds improvement of that side of the ball.

"We've focussed on trying to be a bit more aggressive in our defence and that definitely showed through against the Stormers, that was our best effort in terms of aggression," he said.

"The system of defence has been pretty good. We've probably been the leading team in terms of tackle completions - in other words we miss less tackles than other teams, so we knew the Stormers were going to be aggressive and they were and difficult to penetrate."

The Reds only arrived back in Brisbane on Monday evening but McKenzie says he will be not using fatigue as an excuse against the Bulls.

He is hopeful of having Ben Lucas (groin) and Van Humphries (finger) available for selection with both set to train at Ballymore on Tuesday.

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